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Cisco anticipates that global mobile traffic growth will outpace global fixed traffic growth by a factor of three in 2018. The following trends are driving mobile data traffic growth:

More mobile users: By 2018, there will be 4.9 billion mobile users, up from 4.1 billion in 2013.

More mobile connections: By 2018, there will be more than 10 billion mobile-ready devices/connections—including eight billion personal mobile devices and two billion M2M connections, up from seven billion total mobile-ready devices and M2M connections in 2013.

By 2018 global mobile data traffic will increase 11-fold and hit an annual run rate of 190 exabytes, according to a new data forecast from Cisco. The report puts monthly mobile data usage at 2.6 exabytes for 2014 and predicts that usage will increase more than six-fold by 2018 when global mobile traffic climbs to 15.9 exabytes monthly.

The study attributes the growth to the rising numbers of mobile internet connections, including M2M, as well as personal devices. Cisco estimates the total will exceed 10 billion connections by 2018, nearly 1.5 times the amount of people on Earth (based on UN population predictions).

Cisco also sees the number of global mobile users increasing from 4.1 billion in 2013 to 4.9 billion in 2018, and average mobile data connection speeds will go up from 1.4 Mbps in 2013 to 2.5 Mbps by 2018.

Wi-Fi faces a lot of challenges, but will also be a source many opportunities as the mobile and Internet worlds collide head on, according to a recent keynote speech by Bob Friday, chief technology officer of Cisco Systems’ wireless networking business. One example of this collision cited by Mr. Friday was the convergence of DAS and Wi-Fi systems in large venues.

“When you look what’s happening in this new world, we’re actually trying to mobilize the entire Internet,” Friday said. “And when you look at the scope of the effort that’s necessary to take all the traffic off the Internet and put in on some sort of wireless network, you start to appreciate the size and the scope of the problem we have in this innovation cycle.” The transition is going to be difficult, he said, noting that it took to 20 years to build out cellular voice networks to get enough capacity to disconnect from wired networks. “When you look who’s suffering the most pain in this new world, it is the mobile operators. They’re at the point of the spear when it comes to mobilizing the Internet,” Friday said. “These are the mobile operators who had nice, mild, short messaging data customers. What happened is they stuck the iPhone and Tablets into the hands of these nice, short messaging data customers, and now they’re mobile Internet carnivores overnight.”

The answer to the dilemma, Friday said, is building more LTE networks, outside and inside of buildings, and further combining the mobile and Internet worlds. “We need to converge the mobile Internet experience with the mobile cellular experience we’ve become dependent upon in our voice world,” he said. “We’re going to be seeing both Wi-Fi and cellular become a key part of this mobile Internet experience in the future.” Friday addressed whether a business model can be made for a free service like Wi-Fi, saying that the expectation of Internet connectivity makes Wi-Fi build out a necessity. “In this new world, what people value is connectivity to the Internet,” Friday said. “They are no longer concerned whether it’s LTE or Wi-Fi. What they value is access to their video and their social networking content. So the point is infrastructure cost money whether it’s Wi-Fi or cellular.” Friday pointed out that enterprises that have thousands of laptops and wireless users in the field are beginning to look like service providers. “With the introduction of the mobile device into the enterprise base, the enterprise IT departments are going through an identity crisis,” he said. “With this new innovation cycle around mobile devices, they’re in a mode of trying to decide what to outsource and what to build. They’re looking to many of you in this room right now to help them.”

Also looking more like service providers are enterprises that deal with consumers inside of their venues, such as hospitalities, hospitals and stadiums. “These are customers that typically have built DAS systems and they’re also trying to build Wi-Fi systems in parallel with them,” Friday said. “And to some extent, I don’t think they really care. What they really care about is they need to provide some sort of mobile Internet connectivity in a neutral-host way to the customers coming inside of these venues.” Venues that offer a connect-to-consumer experience are interested in knowing who’s on their network and they need the analytics to understand if the users have opted in to a loyalty program. “They want to be able to help that customer before he actually gets toward the venue,” Friday said. “They want to help them with geo-location on the cellular side, let them know they’re about to enter the store, and they want to help them with Wi-Fi when they start to enter the store.” Venues, such as airports, are interested in using DAS and Wi-Fi to learn how people are moving inside of their venues for operational reasons. Seamless connectivity is also important to venue owners, getting customers on and off their networks easily and quickly. Venues have an opportunity to enhance their customers’ experience by tailoring the information that is pushed out to smart phones in their hands, Friday said. “In this mobile Internet, people are starting to demand data in a much more efficient and quicker way. And they’re expecting the network to help them do that,” Friday said. “The information I need should be rolled into my hands and to my preferences. And the network should be able to deliver that information to me, or at least making certain the pile information I need to find is a lot smaller.”

Wi-Fi is a mainstream wireless technology, largely accessed across a variety of devices ranging from smartphones, tablets, laptops, to Wi-Fi enabled consumer electronics. The technology has evolved across a number of platforms and is now operated in 5GHz and 60GHz bands enabling multiple user configurations. The Global Outdoor Wi-Fi Equipment Market has also been witnessing the emergence of outdoor Wi-Fi as a service.This has created newer business models that have evolved at every stage of this transition, opening up a significant global market. The applications in Hot Spots, Machine to Machine (M2M), Carrier Wi-Fi, Outdoor Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi on the Go and In-Flight Wi-Fi are some of the most lucrative markets for Wi-Fi.

The commoditizing and monetizing of Wi-Fi, across devices, ranges and scenarios, has also led to various innovative business models of implementing Wi-Fi according to the needs of the users. Wi-Fi as a service, and the associated business model, has opened up the market more so than treating it purely as a technology. This trend has invited most of the players to this market along with the traditional Wi-Fi giants, creating a healthy competitive environment. As such, Haim Harel, President and Founder of Magnolia Broadband states his company is investing millions of dollars in developing its next generation technology to address the needs of this enormous market opportunity. According to Mr. Harel, Magnolia Broadband's Adaptive Antenna System solution dramatically improves both the performance, coverage, capacity and data speeds of wi-fi and small cell systems. This should all contribute greatly to the wireless carriers bottom line as the global Wi-Fi market revenue is forecast to reach $93.23 billion in 2018 from $40.13 billion in 2013, at an estimated CAGR of 15.08% during this period according to research firm Infonetics.

Smartphone manufacturers must optimize both hardware and software configurations to improve battery life, according to new report, compiled by research firm Yankee Group, analysed correlating features of more than 850 smartphones introduced between 2009 and 2013 with measured battery life.

The size of smartphones has increased dramatically in the last five years, the report confirmed, with phone manufacturers improving battery life by using physically large batteries. But while large batteries increase charging time, they release more heat and cost more.

On the other hand, if smartphone manufacturers keep making components that consume more power and require bigger batteries, the phones will grow increasingly uncomfortable to hold. Overall, consumers rank battery life as the top factor in their buying decision, ahead of price and internet access.

Advances in battery technology itself are unlikely to yield any significant increases in battery life without other changes. Battery efficiency is easier to achieve for manufacturers that can optimise both hardware and software configurations for longer operating time, according to the report. While there is no single solution for poor battery, intelligent software solutions which reduce overall power consumption such as offered by Magnolia Broadband's new Adaptive Antenna Solution can create better user experiences while increasing battery performance up to 20% in certain instances.

Smartphones sales are set to increase by 300% between now and 2019, as demand for mobile data skyrockets by a factor of 10. This presents enormous opportunities for solution providers such as Magnolia Broadband. ﻿﻿Magnolia Broadband's beamforming technologies improve by magnitudes, both the performance, capacity and ultimately the user experiences for smartphone (and tablet) users according to Osmo Hautanen, Magnolia BroadBand's CEO.

The total number of devices subscribed to mobile networks will reach 9.3 billion by 2019, according to Ericsson, of which 5.6 billion will be smartphones. That means more than six out of every 10 devices connected to wireless broadband networks will be smart devices with an operating system such as Android, iOS, or Windows Phone.

Today, smartphones outsell feature phones and other devices, but still make up only between 25% to 30% of all the mobile subscriptions around the world. Most devices connecting to the cellular networks are feature phones or other networked gear, such as mobile hotspots or machine-to-machine units. Smartphones made up 55% of phone sales during the third quarter of 2013, according to Ericsson.

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Created on: Mon 18 November 2013 11:48
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Small cell’s spatial efficiency and lower TCO, coupled with Magnolia Broadband's beam forming technology solutions are key to alleviating the mobile data crunch. According Cooper’s Law that underpinned the recent 3GPP workshop on how to best grow capacity, small cells offered the best return, offering a 56x improvement versus 6x for spectrum efficiency and 3x for additional spectrum. When incorporating Magnolia Broadband’s beamforming technology solutions, these improvements are even further enhanced.

With the growth in data consumption, connected devices, and mobile applications, carriers need to address The “3 C’s – Capacity, Coverage, Congestion.” The sheer volume of mobile data traffic growth is driving capacity constraints. Coverage issues are arising due to the need for indoor coverage and the fact that 4G base stations cover a smaller area effectively. Coverage needs are also being driven by demand in rural and emerging markets. Congestion issues are being driven by the number of devices connecting to the network at any one time and the amount of signaling traffic driven by mobile applications. In order to address The 3 C’s multiple solutions are coming to market including additional spectrum, spectrum efficiency, mobile content delivery, small cells plus Magnolia Broadband’s solutions, which offers emhancement for all solutions while resulting in enhancing the overall subscriber experience..

Data continues to be a major area of growth for mobile operators. As Cisco reported in their recent Visual Networking Index (VNI) study6, the volume of mobile broadband (MBB) traffic has been doubling every year, reaching 1,577 Petabytes per month7 in 2013 (the equivalent of 500 billion .mp3 files or 800 million hours of streaming HD video8) and is forecast to reach 11,156 Petabytes by 2017. The rate of growth is underlined by the fact that total traffic volumes in 2012 were as high as all prior years combined. Furthermore, this growth hasn’t been isolated to one area – all regions have been showing impressive growth rates. In absolute terms, however, Asia Pacific is the clear leader and is forecast to account for 47% of traffic by 2017.

The small cell market is heating up as Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm Technologies have agreed to a partnership in developing small cell technology. Reuters reports the deal is worth approximately $133 million in research funding. The two companies plan to jointly invest in a strategic R&D program to develop the next generation of Alcatel-Lucent light Radio small cell products. The new units will feature Qualcomm Technologies' family of small cell chipsets.

With new tablets being introduced this month and in October, data shows that tablet shipments will soon surpass those of personal computers. A report by research firm IDC predicts that for the first time more tablets will be shipped in the fourth quarter of 2013 than PC shipments; and, by 2015, annual tablet shipments will top PC shipments. By the numbers, tablet shipments are expected to reach 84.1 million units in the fourth quarter, while PC shipments will be 83.1 million. PC shipments are looking to drop by 10 percent for all of 2013.

Tablets have recently come a long way -- many now have speedy processors, razor-sharp HD screens, and heaps of apps. Competition in the tablet market has also become fiercely saturated with a whole host of new devices, from simple machines without a lot of bells and whistles to fancy hybrids toting tons of features.

While tablet shipments are on the rise, smartphones will continue to rule the market over the next few years. By 2015, IDC predicts 1.4 billion smartphones will be shipped, which will equal 69 percent of all smart connected device shipments worldwide.

The small-cell industry is poised to gear up in 2014 as small cells spill out of homes on to the streets, shopping centers and enterprises offering carrier grade quality of service. Magnolia Broadband has developed new solutions-- beam forming technologies called Adapative Antenna Systems (AAS) which dramatically improve the performance of small cells and wi-fi access points.

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Created on: Thu 29 August 2013 10:19
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Market research firm, Mobile Experts published a new forecast claiming that 70 million small cells will be shipped by 2017, including femtocells deployed by mobile operators and picocells used for high-capacity urban networks. LTE small cells are a major part of the forecast growth over the next five years, with more than twothirds of small cells deployed in 2017 devoted to LTE-FDD or TD-LTE.

The small-cell market is experiencing a flurry of activity, including mobile operators launching small cells and continuing to deploy picocells and microcells while vendors develop metrocell technologies for capacity offload.

Several operators have now reported deployments with 100s of thousands of femtocells including:

• Sprint (US) has reported over 1 million units during October 2012 and estimates indicate that it had deployed more than 1 million during end-2012.

• Both Softbank and SFR have reported more than 100K units.

• Vodafone has reported femtocell registered users in the “hundreds of thousands” in the UK.

• Although AT&T has not reported its numbers directly, analyst estimates also put them near the 1 million mark.

Several operators have reiterated their support for public area small cells. AT&T announced that it will deploy 40,000 units by 2015, while Vodafone UK and Verizon are expected to start deploying in 2013. Other operators, including fixed, have announced coverage-driven small cell trials.

The Carrier WiFi and small cells infrastructure market will grow at a CAGR of 40% over the next five years eventually accounting fover $11 Billion in revenues by the end of 2018.

The continued demand for mobile broadband services will play a critical role in maintaining the Carrier WiFi and small cell market’s growth, amid a growing demand of convergent, intelligent and vendor agnostic small cell platforms by Carriers.

A new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ad (WiGig) which uses 60GHz band and delivers speeds up to 7 Gbps was approved by IEEE in early 2013. The very first 802.11ad capable products are likely to enter market around the end of the year.

Worldwide consumer Wi-Fi customer premises equipment (CPE) shipments surpassed 43.3 million at the end of 1Q-2013; a 16.8% increase from 4Q-2012.

802.11n device shipments still dominate the market, accounting for more than two thirds of total device shipments; however, 802.11ac access point adoption is starting to gain traction according to ABI Research

Devices with the very latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, started to enter the market in late 2012. According to ABI Research’s “Wi-Fi Equipment” Market Data, a total of 0.2 million consumer 802.11ac Wi-Fi APs shipped in 1Q 2013. “802.11ac protocol enables speeds up to 1.3 Gbps as well as better coverage than 802.11n. ABI Research expects that 1 million of 802.11ac consumer access points will be shipped by the end of 2013.”

ENGLEWOOD, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Magnolia Broadband, the inventor of Adaptive Antenna Systems (AAS), a “Beam-forming” technology for wireless smartphones and tablets, said today it has secured $3 million in funding from individual and institutional investors, led by SCP Partners. Magnolia Broadband will use the funding for further development of its AAS technologies for smartphones, tablets, small 3G/4G base stations and Wi-Fi access points.

Osmo Hautanen, Magnolia Broadband’s CEO, said, “With global mobile data traffic forecasted to increase 26-fold over the next 5 years driven by video and multi-media data traffic, Magnolia Broadband’s solutions provide enhanced real time HD video and multimedia experiences which will broaden the range of applications and services that can be shared, creating a highly enhanced mobile broadband experience.” Hautanen added, “SCP Partners has been an outstanding supporter of Magnolia Broadband since its inception. With this additional capital, Magnolia Broadband will further solidify its leadership position by expanding its patent portfolio and advance licensing efforts with wireless network operators around the globe.”

“Magnolia Broadband has been on the forefront of developing technologies which offer significant benefits for both wireless carriers and consumers on quality of service providing faster data throughput, better coverage and wider range both on macro wireless networks as well as Wi-Fi coverage areas," said Yaron Eitan, Chairman of the Board of Magnolia Broadband, Inc., and a Partner at SCP Partners, the company’s largest shareholder, and President of Selway Capital. Furthermore he added, “Magnolia Broadband’s technologies have been valued by leading companies such as Google which acquired over 50 of its patents in 2012.”

The small cell industry is at a defining moment. Over 98 percent of operators think small cells are essential to their future and femtocells alone outnumber macrocells globally and are expected to constitute over 85 percent of all base stations by 2017. The total number of small cells deployed globally increased from 6.4 million to 10.8 million in the last three months of 2012. Second, femtocells number 9.6 million and now outnumber macrocells.